


Jinx

by waterbird13



Series: Tumblr Fics [420]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Health Issues, Mental Health Issues, PTSD, Panic Attacks, Therapy Animal, Therapy cat, cardiac event
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-08
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-10-29 16:59:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10858236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waterbird13/pseuds/waterbird13
Summary: After everything, Tony got a therapy cat. She's great and the support is great.Except he doesn't trust the returning team near her.





	1. Chapter 1

Tony hides the cat.

He knows it’s stupid, but he can’t help it. Anything he loves that will let him lock them away, he will. Which means the ‘bots stay in the lab. FRIDAY barely talks to the returned team. And the cat lives exclusively in Tony’s rooms.

Which rather defeats the point, of course. Jinx is supposed to be there whenever Tony starts to get anxious, whenever he starts to have a panic attack, whenever he gets too wound up and needs to relax before he gives himself another heart attack. Vision, FRIDAY, and Rhodey had been behind the idea, but Tony can’t say he minds the therapy cat.

But he won’t let her around the team, won’t trust the team with her, and of course those are the places where he needs her most often. He does have panic attacks in his rooms, but it’s far more likely for Wanda Maximoff’s magic or Clint’s snide comments or Steve’s sudden moves to set him off.

He solves it by spending most of his time in his lab or in his room, isolated from everyone but a select few FRIDAY knows to let through.

“Meow.”

Tony shakily pets down her back. “You’re a good cat, you know that?” He asks. Rhetorical, of course, because he knows she can’t talk back.

But then again, neither can DUM-E or Butterfingers or U, and Tony’s pretty sure he understands them anyways.

She butts her head against his elbow, and he almost manages to smile.

“Meow.”

“Yeah, I know.”

He joined whole-team training for the first time today, and as a consequence saw Steve work with the shield he hadn’t wanted to return but had felt pressured into. The world needed Captain America, needed him at his best. And Tony would keep his mouth shut.

He’d made it through almost all of training, despite Rhodey’s, Peter’s, Vision’s, and even Carol’s offers to make his excuses. But Steve had thrown the shield to Bucky, that well-practiced move part of their repertoire, and they had just been standing too close to Tony, and that had been it. Tony thinks he stuttered something about a broken repulsor–a lie, of course, his repulsors take a lot harder hits to break–and made a break for it.

To Jinx.

“Meow.”

“Yup.”

She sprawls across his lap, belly up, and this time Tony does manage to smile before giving her the requested belly-rubs. Unlike Ana Jarvis’ cat from when Tony was small, Jinx will let him pet her for hours, if he needs to. None of the biting him after precisely three strokes business.

The door opens and Tony flinches, and Jinx, perceptive as ever, bats at his hands.

It’s Peter and Vision, though, and Tony does his best to relax. Jinx gives them a thoroughly unimpressed look before deciding she can settle back into Tony’s lap.

“Colonel Rhodes is on his way,” Peter says, pulling his mask off now that they’re in the privacy of Tony’s rooms. “He’s yelling.”

Vision takes over from there. “He’s restructuring the training procedure,” he corrects. “So this will not happen again.”

“Maybe next time Jinx could be there?” Peter suggests.

Tony shakes his head. “No, I…I don’t trust them with her.”

“Meow.”

Tony begins petting again, compelled by his pushy cat.

“Can we sit?”

Tony nods, so the couch is filled around him. “We can go back to training just us,” Peter offers.

“How productive is that?” Tony asks rhetorically.

Vision actually answers. “More productive than this, I imagine. If you cannot work with them, then you cannot work with them. We would all understand. We all have our reservations and our problems.”

“But you all do it.”

“They weren’t my friends,” Peter says. “And they didn’t try to kill me.”

The door opens again and Rhodey rolls in, groaning. “I let Carol take over yelling,” he says. “I had more important places to be.”

“You all know they didn’t do anything wrong,” Tony says.

Rhodey rolls his eyes. “Forgive us for being a little mad,” he says dryly.

Jinx moves so she’s sitting in Tony’s lap, then moves up his arm and perches on his shoulder. She’s not a big cat, but Tony still goes a little crooked under the weight. Her tail hits him in the face and he smiles again.

“Movie night?” Rhodey offers. “Carol will probably be up sooner or later, we could order food while we’re waiting.”

There’s no mention of anyone else. For a moment, Tony feels bad, but then the thought of them being in here makes him tense. Jinx butts her head against his.

“I want pizza,” he says, reaching up to pat his cat with one hand and reach for his phone with the other, listening to his friends list their pizza orders.


	2. Chapter 2

Tony wakes up and he hears beeping, which is never a good sign.

“What the hell?” he asks, voice fuzzy.

“Tony!”

“Rhodey?” He tries to open his eyes, and for something he’s been doing the better part of a half century, it’s a lot harder than it should be.

“I’m here. You’re fine.”

“What the hell happened?”

“You had another cardiac event, Tony,” Helen Cho says, and Tony sighs.

“I don’t remember.” It’ll come back to him later, probably, but it’s not unusual for cardiac events to be linked to panic attacks, and panic attacks tend to make the situational specifics a little fuzzy afterwards.

Tony looks around. He’s still at the compound, at least, no one tried to ship him to a hospital. And she said “event,” not “attack,” which probably means he’s getting out of this bed sooner rather than later, even if some sternly-worded lectures will be involved.

“You got caught in Wanda’s magic, from the looks of things,” Rhodey says.

Tony’s breathing stops and Helen advances before he manages to regulate it. “Did she…”

“An accident, I believe,” Vision says, and Tony didn’t even know the android was there before he spoke, standing so quietly in a corner, watching them all. “She was performing the training exercise and…missed.”

Tony swallows his bitterness. “Yeah.” Story of their lives, and no one has done much of anything about it yet.

“Carol’s with the team, sorting shit out,” Rhodey says. “Let me tell you, I will take second in command any day if it doesn’t mean all the shit she has to do.”

Tony snorts. “Everyone’s okay?”

“Everyone’s fine,” Vision assures him. “It is you we’re concerned about.”

“Peter’s on his way down with Jinx,” Rhodey continues. “Kid thinks she’ll make you feel better.”

That makes Tony’s heart monitor pick up and everyone stare in alarm. “She’s not supposed to be out of the apartment,” he says. “She’s safe in there, leave her be, call Peter and tell her to leave her be…”

“Calm down, Tony,” Helen says. “Deep breaths, slow and even, count with me, alright?”

Once he’s breathing evenly again, Rhodey takes his hand. “Tony, we will protect your cat,” he says. “But her job is to protect you, okay? And keep you out of the hospital. And she can’t do it if you don’t let her. But I promise you, we will not let anyone hurt your cat.”

They can barely keep themselves safe, nevermind a tiny cat that doesn’t know to be wary. He’d probably throw himself between Jinx and danger, stupid as it might be, but that would also be self-defeating, and everything would just be better if she stayed in his room.

“Meow.”

Peter rushes in, mask still on, carrying Jinx inside a fluffy blanket from the back of Tony’s couch before depositing her onto the hospital bed, where she immediately settles onto Tony’s lap, batting at a hand until he starts petting her. He melts a little.

Peter grins, twisting the mask slightly. “See? She missed you. She knows when she’s needed.”

It is nice to pet his cat, and he feels a bit of the tension melting away. That is, until the door to his hospital room opens and the whole team seemingly piles through.

Carol follows them, looking harried, but even she can’t stop the deluge of over-eager superheroes who can’t take a hint.

“Hey, Stark, how are…you have a cat?” Lang asks, staring pointedly at Jinx on his lap. She looks at him, unimpressed, before settling back in and rubbing her face against Tony’s blanket-clad leg.

Tony crouches a bit over her. “Yeah.”

Carol clears her throat. “We’re working out a new training regime so this never happens again,” she announces. Wanda looks sulky, Steve and Clint look a little put-out, but Tony knows that, when Carol says something, it gets done, and he appreciates it.

Training up Wanda’s control should have been a priority years ago. It would have changed so much.

Jinx bats at his hand and he scratches the back of her head before rubbing down her back. “Good cat,” he mumbles.

Scott reaches out a hesitant hand, and Tony tries to physically turn away, but it’s Rhodey who blocks him. “Don’t touch,” he says firmly.

“What, Stark, you that bad at sharing your toys?” Clint asks.

Tony’s hackles rise. “She’s not a toy, she’s a living animal,” he snaps. And, slightly calmer, he admits, eyes firmly on Jinx, “and she’s working. You’re not supposed to touch working animals. It distracts them.”

“Your seeing-eye cat?” Clint asks.

The room gets quiet. Clearly, none of his friends want to say anything Tony might not want to share. But he got himself into this. And maybe it’s time they knew. Not because they’ll respect it. But because they should look the reality in the face.

“Therapy animal,” Tony says. “Helps with PTSD. And anxiety. So I don’t, you know, get so stressed I have a cardiac event and land in a hospital bed.”

The room gets very quiet. Jinx, feeling ignored, bites lightly at Tony’s fingers and Tony sets back into petting her, letting the rhythmic motions soothe him.


	3. Chapter 3

“Why didn’t we know you had a cat?” Sam asks, sitting on the couch next to Tony, leaving a full couch cushion of space between them. Which is probably good. They’ve recently discovered that Jinx is a biter, a problem they’ve never had before and Tony has no idea how to train her out of.

Tony pets down her spine, feeling the vibrations of her purrs through his whole arm. “Gee, I don’t know,” he deadpans. “I mean, why would I want people who dislike me, who’ve tried to kill me or at the very least stood by when someone else tried, who’ve mocked my mental health issues, near my vulnerable cat who doesn’t know what’s good for her?”

Sam flinches. “We didn’t–”

“You weren’t here for all of it, you get a partial pass,” Tony says. “Like, one one hundredth of a pass. My therapist says I need to be more discerning with my forgiveness.”

Tony wishes he could crash out on the couch in his own apartment while recovering, but that had unfortunately been vetoed. They could set up a rotating schedule so someone would always be with him if he needed something, but this was just easier, to have him in public spaces so whoever was nearest could help him stand or get him water or a new book or the toy mouse Jinx loves to chase.

But it also means company. It’s selfish to want Carol and Rhodey and Vision and Peter when he’s not in school to dedicate their time to him and his upkeep, but part of him wants to demand it so he can get some privacy.

Jinx’s head butts against his fingers. He automatically sets to skritching behind her ears, just like she likes.

“You sill here?” He asks Sam.

Sam’s watching intently. “We never meant for this to happen,” he says.

“And yet,” Tony says. “Here we are.”

“Bucky wanted to know if he could talk to you for a few minutes,” Sam continues, like the two thoughts are in any way related.

“Why?” Tony demands. Jinx stands fully upright now, sensing that things are escalating. Tony hasn’t been alone with Barnes yet. And while he’s not going to call a suit and shoot the man, the system of avoiding each other when possible had been pretty sound.

“Why don’t you let him explain?”

Which is not a satisfactory answer, not in the least, but then Sam’s gone and Bucky’s in his place.

Bucky has the decency to sit on the far opposite side of the couch, to make himself look a little smaller, to have his hands in plain sight. “Wanted to ask ‘bout the cat,” he says. His voice is soft. Mellow.

“What about her?” Tony asks, putting an arm out as though he can protect her that way.

“She help?”

Tony swallows. “Yeah.”

“I want…I’ve been looking at…I think it would help me.”

Tony picks up Jinx and cuddles her to his chest. “You can’t have her,” he snaps, and it’s irrational and mean and dumb, but it’s true. He needs her.

She rubs her head under his chin and he relaxes a bit, even before Bucky shakes his head.

“An animal. A therapy animal. They help, right? Only…something sturdier. I’d be worried about a kitten.”

“She’s full grown,” Tony says, because his brain-to-mouth filter is shot and Jinx is four years old. “And you looking for a…dog? Horse? Help me out, here.”

“Dog, probably,” Bucky admits.

Tony pulls Jinx away from his chest slightly so he can look at her. “You gonna be good with a dog walking around this place?” He asks her. “Big smelly thing, probably act like he owns it. You’ll have to show him who’s boss.”

“Meow.”

“That’s what I thought. FRIDAY?”

“Yes, boss?”

“Give Buck-o here some websites to check out. And turn my movie back on.”

Tony settles Jinx back into his lap as the film starts playing again. Bucky doesn’t get up to leave, just stays on the other side of the couch, watching too.

Somehow, Tony’s not that bothered by it.


End file.
